Corsica Is a Problem?

José Bové Goes to Jail
Suddenly

Paris:- Monday, 23. June 2003:- On Sunday, 6.
July, voters in Corsica will go to the polls to take part
in a referendum that will ask them if they want Corsica's
two Départments united into one.

Specifically, voters will be asked to approve the
'proposed orientations for modifying the institutional
organization of Corscia.' It will be the fourth time within
the last 25 years that such a referendum has been held.

The idea seems to be to unite the two départments
and have them function as a regional authority, which has
more autonomy than a départment. The two existing
départments and their administrations, united, would
be governed - for some reason - by two territorial
councils.

To convince Corsicans of the benefits of this radical
administrative change, the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and the Minister of the
Interior Nicolas Sarkozy visited the island on
Saturday.

At Bastia's airport the two government ministers stood
on chairs, trying to speak, while facing the usual general
brawl that greets all big nobs from Paris - between the
referendum's supporters, opponents, and the
police.

The Italian comedy theatre that was attacked
for satirizing George W Bush.

Later on, they were confronted by an organized public
meeting where only 150 out of 650 chairs were filled.
Outside the tent near the airport, a handful of protestors
were the cause of the meeting moving inside the airport,
away from TV coverage.

But in the evening, at Ajaccio, 400 supporters turned up
to hear the Prime Minister at a meeting started off by one
of Johnny Hallyday's golden oldies.

Apparently, the mixed receptions have already caused
some doubt at the top in Paris about the wisdom of the
referendum. Beside the questions of continuing to be a
départment of France, or independent, there are
other questions concerning the fate of the double set of
civil servants, and their relationship to the much disputed
'reform' of the national retirement pension.

According to Le Parisien, Corsican nationalists are for
a 'yes' vote on the government's referendum. They will get
better electoral scores out of it. Anti-nationalists,
therefore, are against it.

But public employees on the island, who account for 52
percent of the working population, are not wildly in favor
of the government's various national 'reforms,' and their
continued employment by a reduced island administration
might be in doubt.

The Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, has
invested eight visits to the island this year to promote
'yes' ballots. As the government's most 'popular' minister,
a 'non' vote will not enhance his prestige - on the
mainland.

To be fair, the present initiative is one inherited from
the previous Socialist government and carried forward by
the present majority of the right. The nth attempt in a
quarter-centuury.

Nationally, both left and right are for a 'yes' vote in
Corsica. On the island, as ever, the situation of
considerably more confused, with some lefts and rights
reversed, with some saying, in effect, that a 'yes' vote
amounts to one 'for' the nationalists. Anti-republican, if
you will.

Even after the mixed receptions on Saturday, the Prime
Minister continues to believe that a visit to Corsica
before the balloting, by Jacques Chirac, will be
valuable.

No Spectacles, Please

The government, in order avoid creating any outrageous
spectacles, sent a helicopter, squads of gendarmes, two
dogs, an all-terrain pursuit motorcycle, a photographer and
a videoman - to smash in José Bové's glass
door at six in the morning on Sunday, handcuff him, and fly
him off to jail at Villeneuve-lès-Maguelonne.

The commando action carried out on the orders of justice
authorities did not prevent sympathizers from besieging the
Préfecture at Rodez during the afternoon.

The blitz-like raid, launched a lively reaction from
leftist political personalities, union leaders, civil
rights activists, including the Syndicate de la
Magistrature.

Authorities were so nervous that a prison visit by
Monsieur Bové's lawyer was refused. The Communist
Party's national deputy from Sète, Francois Liberti,
did manage to enter the prison to see Bové.

The anti-bad food peasant leader refused to do a deal
with the state that would have allowed him liberty with an
electronic bracelet, or work off the ten-month sentence
with public-service work, or enjoy some other undefined
form of semi-liberty.

Speaking on TV-news, the 'Garde des Sceaux' - the
Minister of Justice - Dominique Perben said that
José Bové had been charged with five offenses
in all - found innocent of some and convicted of others.
The prisoner has already served 44 days in prison for the
deconstruction of a McDonald's unit at Millau.

The outraged remained outraged. The lawyer for the
Peasant's Confederation was quoted as saying that there was
'no arrest warrant.' Adding that the commando operation was
'illegal,' he said a charge would be laid against the
authorities responsible, for 'violation de domicile.'

The present incarceration is for the affair of the
destruction of genetically-modified colza plants. Yesterday
evening, 400 supporters were gathered outside the prison at
Villeneuve-lès-Maguelonne, facing a large number of
anxious gendarmes.

According to the Minister of Justice, it is possible
that José Bové will benefit from the Bastille
Day grace, traditionally accorded to some short-time
prisoners by France's président.

Right Wing On
a Roll

After over a month of 'Mardi Noirs' and some 'Jeudi
Noirs' involving many one-day strikes and many street
demonstrations by millions of French residents against
government plans to 'reform' the retirement scheme, and
plans to 'decentralize' France's civil servants - and four
long weekends - the country has returned to what passes for
normality.

But 'normal' times are full of surprises too, so it was
with some wonder that TV-news showed a street demonstration
a week ago Sunday involving supporters of the right-wing,
gathered in the Place de la Concorde to protest against all
the other strikes and demonstrations.

The majority right-wing party, the UMP, claims it had
nothing to do with this - on the grounds that it had no
wish to 'divide the country.' Put another way, no desire to
show the left any 'red capes.'

Five unknown associations were the co-organizers of the
40,000 who filled a small part of the Place de la
Concorde. The police put the number at 18,000, and the
organizers put forward the number as 150,000.

The official season for mass strikes and demonstrations
is over until the fall. The big issue at the
'rentrée' will be the 'reform' of the state health
system.

Nothing on TV? Easier to rent a video than
buy a pizza.

One right-wing protester characterized the left in
France as the most anarchic 'in the world.' There is also a
familiar phrase for the right-wing, and it is 'the world's
dumbest.'

So far, according to Le Parisien, the majority UMPs are
managing to restrain their arrogance, and except for some
minor internal disagreements are managing to remain
united.

This probably has to do with the types of relatively
minor problems that can be handled with administrative
decrees - such as intolerance with speeding on the
autoroutes, or deporting people who have no valid residence
papers.

But 'reform' by decree won't work. As long as the
government has a majority to push it through, it will be
resisted by the out-of-parliament opposition.

This can be overcome for a time, but if the majority
swings back to the left, it can undo what the right has
wrought - just as easily as the right is undoing 100 years'
worth of social legislation now.

Late Score for the
Fête de la Musique

Paris has a few Sunday papers, plus dozens of radio and
TV stations, but for some reason an all-day all-night party
involving thousands of performers, 20 arrondissements -
plus all of France - with perhaps millions of spectators,
received next-to-no coverage, and no estimated attendance
score.

My own rough estimate of the capacity of the Champ de
Mars, was that it was nearly full. Without an overhead
view, it is impossible to guess how many were there because
after sundown, it was kind of dark.

Other witnesses said that hordes of pedestrians took
over the streets of the Quartier Latin, and there were very
few cars trying to move about. There was, they said, a lot
of dancing in the streets.

The police on duty in Paris, announced in advance as
numbering a thousand, made 81 arrests in the city. Most of
these, as reported, were the 'usual suspects.' Of those
arrested, 54 were retained in custody.

Update - found, by chance, on Le Parisien's third
last page, the report of the TV coverage from the Champ de
Mars.

The report says the Préfecture de Police
estimated the crowd at 200,000. Following the manifestation
'rule-of-thumb,' this means there were probably 350,000
present. If it had been a union event, the guesstimated
figure would have been 550,000.

France-2 TV estimated its audience at a mere three
million, lowered most likely by the affair being an active
people's event in the streets rather than a passive TV-only
event.

TV focused on a 34 square-metre stage for four hours.
The invited guest-stars numbered 38, some of whom played
other public venues such as the Place de la
République.

TV's sound quality was criticized, and one announced
performer never was located. In person, near the Ecole
Militaire end of the Champ de Mars, no sound at all was
audible as music.

The 'Concert of His Life'

Only a week earlier, Le Parisien devoted two whole pages
to one 60 year-old French rock star, who gave an
'unforgettable' performance for a mere 55,000 life-time
fans of all ages, from all parts of France, at the Parc des
Princes stadium.

The newspaper even had good things to say about TF1's TV
coverage - which was restricted to an average-sized stadium
rather than a whole city - except to remark on a
'trés regrettable' commercial break at 22:45.

And for the short of memory, this 60th birthday concert
by Johnny Hallyday was compared to the one he gave for his
50th birthday, in the same stadium. No doubt true fans are
already planning for Johnny's next concert, and perhaps his
first retirement announcement, in 2013.

Airbus Gets
Gravy

The Salon du Bourget came to an end this weekend after
getting a fair amount of TV coverage during its two-week
run. One of its low points was one of the few remaining
Concordes coming in for a final landing, before becoming an
exhibit at the airport's Air and Space Museum.

On a higher- flying note, Airbus triumphantly announced
that it had picked up 64 firm orders for its
passenger jets. Of these, 26 were for its new super-big
A380 model, which is not expected to be in the air before
2005

Korean Air ordered eight A380s and nine Boeings, the
only ones Boeing sold during the Salon. Other big customers
for Airbus were Emirates and Qatar Airways, both based in
the Persian Gulf at Dubai.

Despite the 2000 passenger jets currently parked and
inactive, Airbus is optimistic about the future. The
European consortium foresees the world's fleet of 11,000
aircraft increasing to 20,000 in 2020, which will require
15,000 new machines - because most of today's 'parked'
fleet will never fly again.

Rumor has it that Boeing will even abandon the civil
aviation business, and rely on Uncle Sam's military needs
for its future orders.

Online Weather Warnings

We are in the bright grip of summer now and it seems to
be going about it about more sunnily than in past years. In
contrast, France-Météo's online alert service
is very short-term. Its level '3' and '4' warnings are
changed to colors for TV presentation, with orange
indicating 'beware.'

Mainly these warnings will about areas beyond the area
of the Ile-de-France. But summer is summer and even Paris
is not completely immune to passing storms.

If you are curious or need to know more about France's
summer weather, give the MétéoFrance Web
site a hit, for its short-range forecasts.